Heathfield was the first home set up by the Manchester & Salford, Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge for poor and neglected girls, some of whom were found destitute on the streets of Manchester and Salford.
They ranged in age from ten to fifteen and were given a home at Heathfield where they worked in the laundry and did housework which in most cases was training for when they were placed in service.
Heathfield was on Broughton Lane close to the junction with Duke Street and was a large house set back from the road in its own grounds.
Now I went looking for it recently but it has gone, replaced by a large block of modern flats. It was opened in 1878 and closed by 1894. Within the year it was back in private residence and little over a ten years later had become the home of a surgeon.
In those closing decades of the 19th century this end of Broughton Lane was still well heeled while the other end was teeming with people who polite society might have described as tradesmen and nothing much has changed with this end given over to low rise warehouses and industrial units.
It was an important organisation, and were active in fighting in the courts for the rights of neglected, destitute and abused young people as well as providing homes, care and holidays for these vulnerable children.
*From the excellent blog site of the Together Trust http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/mystery-photographs.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TogetherTrustArchive-GettingDownAndDusty+(Together+Trust+Archive+-+getting+down+and+dusty!)
Picture; courtesy of the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/
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